Skills represent your character's knowledge base and ability to perform specific tasks, such as jumping, searching, making armor, negotiating, or casting a ritual. Your character's ability to use a skill effectively depends on a combination of training (represented with Skill Ranks), natural ability (represented by two Attribute Modifiers), and chance (represented by a die roll). The higher your character's Skill Rank in a particular skill, the more experience and training he has, and the more successful he will be using it.

Choosing Skills

Picking out skills is one of the best ways to represent your character's background. While you'll find some skills important to the function of your character's class, you'll also have opportunities to select skills that represent your character's history and goals. For example, if your character was the son of a Blacksmith, he may have training in the Blacksmithing craft skill. If your character came from a mining town, he likely has training in Mining and perhaps knowledge of Precious Metals. Perhaps your character is from a nomadic tribe, and is familiar with Hunting and Survival techniques. Maybe your character's brother drowned at a young age and he couldn't save him, causing him to train vigorously in Swimming so he'd never find himself helpless again. Regardless of your character's background and motivations, you will likely find skills that help to bring those aspects of your character to life. Keep in mind that the list of skills provided on this site is not exhaustive. If you think of a skill that does not fit within the given list, talk to your GM about creating a custom skill for your character.

Types of Skills

Skills are broken up into several different types, which are outlined in more detail below.

Active Skills

Active Skills represent simple physical tasks, such as jumping over a fence, hiding in the brush, or Swimming across a raging river. While many people can complete some aspect of these skills without training, they become better with experience and practice. For example, while anyone can attempt to climb a tree, even with no training or Ranks in Climb, it would take an experienced climber to successfully scale a sheer cliff.

Sensory Skills

Sensory Skills represent a character's senses and his ability to utilize them to gain information from his environment. Most player characters are limited to training the in skills associated with the senses they are most adept at using, Spot (for Vision) and Listen (for Hearing). Ranks in your character's sensory skills will affect his Awareness Score, which represents the ability to detect dangerous situations or inconsistencies in the environment.

Social Skills

Social Skills are a subset of skills that allow you to interact and communicate with other creatures. Social Skills are used to influence NPCs opinions, convince them to complete favors, and can be used to affect the morale of your opponents. Social Skills are necessary for negotiation, requesting favors, intimidating opponents, maintaining disguises, and making friends. Of the 10 Social Skills, 5 are used Offensively (to change a character's thoughts, opinions, and actions) and 5 are used Defensively (to prevent a character from changing your thoughts, opinions, and actions).

Academics Skills

Academics Skills represent a character's basic knowledge and his ability to recall facts about a specific subject. Academics skills can be extremely varied and can encompass just about any subject of interest to your character. Common academics skills are listed on the Academics Skill page, but a character may choose to specialize in any area of knowledge appropriate to the setting. Academics skills can be broad, such as Monster Lore and History, or specific, such as Draconic Lore and Elven History. When utilizing a more specific Academics Skill, the Difficulty of the task is reduced by 1 or more. You may choose to take the Academics Skill multiple times, each time training in a different area of knowledge.

Trade Skills

Most Trade Skills are related to a profession or particular lifestyle, such as Farming, Hunting, and Mining. They can also represent more specific abilities, such as Cartography, Disguise, Gambling, and Forgery. Trade Skills are more complicated that other skills and encompass two different aspects of the skill. The first aspect is the direct use, or Application, of the skill (such as singing to a crowd, picking a lock, or cooking dinner for friends). The second aspect is the Lore and knowledge relevant to the skill. Thus, a trade skill can be used to make both Application Checks and Lore checks. The distinction is important since some abilities and features may grant bonuses (or penalties) to only one aspect of the trade skill.

There are two special types of Trade skills: Craft Skills and Performance Skills, with slightly different rules for use.

Craft Skills

Craft Skills (indicated by the Crafting Keyword) represent just about every trade involving the making of specific goods. Common craft skills include Carpentry, Cobbling, Locksmith, Trapsmith, Brewing, Tailoring, Weaving, and Smithing (Blacksmithing, Weaponsmith, or Armorsmith). Craft Skills are generally broad, such as Weaponsmithing, Basket Weaving, or Tailoring, but can also be more specific, such as Sword Smithing, Pine Needle Basketry, or Dressmaking. When utilizing a more specific skill to complete a task, the Difficulty of the task is reduced by 1 or more. You may choose to take the Craft Skill multiple times, each time specializing in a particular craft.

Performance Skills

The Performance Skill represents proficiency with a particular performance, such as Singing, Acting, or playing a specific instrument. Common Performance Skills are listed on the Performance Skill page, but a character may choose to specialize in any performance appropriate to the setting. Performance skills may be broad, such as Singing and Violin, or specific, such as Opera Singing and Classical Violin. When utilizing a more specific Performance Skill, the Skill Difficulties of the task is reduced by 1 or more. You may choose to take the Performance Skill multiple times, each time training in a different performance.

Gaining Skills

Skills have a Rank from 0 to 15, with 0 representing no training in the skill and 15 representing a character that has spent countless hours mastering the skill and ultimately becoming one of the best in the world. Most player characters do not achieve Skill Ranks beyond about 10 or 11, though, as the resources and requirements needed to do so are high. Skill Ranks are broken up into five tiers: Apprentice (Rank 1), Novice (Ranks 2-3), Journeyman (Ranks 4-6), Master (Ranks 7-10), and Grand Master (Ranks 11-15). Each tier represents progressively greater accomplishment within the skill. Some tasks may even require proficiency of a certain tier before they can be completed. A character's rank is increased by spending Skill Points in a particular skill, with higher tiers of skills costing more points to increase than lower tiers (see the chart below).

Your first level character starts with a pool of starting skill points to spend in Skills favored by your Race and Class (described below). As your character gains experience and levels, he gains Skill Points that can be used to increase his current skill ranks or to gain new skills. There is a maximum rank imposed on Skills, based on character level (though this maximum is increased for Favored Skills). Your first level character has a maximum skill rank of 3.

Your character's Race and Class grant a list of Favored Skills, representing a natural inclination towards those particular skills. The Maximum Rank for a character's favored skills is increased by one, allowing him to have a greater potential in those skills over skills that are not favored. Therefore, your first level character has a maximum skill rank of 4 for Favored Skills.

Your Racial Favored Skills can be found in the Racial Characteristics box on each race page and the Class Favored Skills can be found in the Class Traits box on each class page. Often, you will be given a choice of Academics, Craft, and/or Perform skills to choose from. This is a great chance to fill in the details of your character's background, as their knowledge and abilities will be particularly indicative of their life before adventuring. Even if you choose never to train in your Elven History academics skill, the fact that your character has that as a Favored Skill speaks to his background. Some Races and Classes give you the opportunity to pick any skill to be favored, in which case the sky is the limit and you can pick any skill that is not a Restricted Skill.

Indicate your character's Favored Skills by check the "Fav" box next to each skill on the character sheet. Some skills (Academics, Craft, and Perform Skills in particular) will need to be written into the blank spaces provided on the character sheet.

Starting Skill Points

After you have picked your character's Favored Skills, refer again to the Race and Class pages for the "Starting Skill Points" information. Both your character's Race and Class grant you a pool of Skill Points to be spent in any skill that is not Restricted for you. These skill points cannot be used to raise a skill above the Maximum Rank for your level, which is Rank 3 at level 1, or Rank 4 for Favored Skills.

When spending your skill points, remember that you must pay for each rank you place in a skill and that the cost of each skill rank varies depending on the tier (according to the chart above). For example, if you want to use your starting skill points to increase the Climb skill to Rank 3, you must spend 1 point to gain Rank 1 (Apprentice Tier), 2 points to gain Rank 2 (Novice Tier), and another 2 points to gain Rank 3 (also Novice Tier), costing a total of 5 skill points in all.

Skill Points per Level

You character additionally gains skill points at each level (including first level). The number of skill points that your character gains depends on his Race and a bonus granted by his Intelligence score. Race grants a flat number of Skill Points at each level, as indicated by "Skill Points per Level" on each race page. The bonus granted from your character's Intelligence score is determined by using the chart to the right. Therefore, your character's total Skill Points per Level is calculated according to the equation below.

When you've determined your total number of skill points per level, record them in the "SP Earned per Level" box on your character sheet. You then can distribute the skill points that you gain at first level to your character. You can use these points to increase any skill that is not Restricted for you (up to the level max of 3, or 4 for favored skills) or to gain ranks in new skills.

Skill Check Bonuses

Once you have determined your character's Skill Ranks, you can calculate his Skill Check Bonuses. The Skill Check Bonus is dependent on Skill Rank, two Attribute Accuracy modifiers (AttA), and miscellaneous bonuses. The Attribute Accuracy Modifiers utilized for each skill are indicated next to the skill on the character sheet. Academics Skills always use the Intelligence Accuracy (IntA) and Wisdom Accuracy (WisA) modifiers. The Attributes appropriate to Craft and Performance Skills will have to be looked up on the tables on the Craft Skill and Performance Skill pages respectively.

Calculate your Skill Check Bonuses using the following equation and record them on your character sheet. Except for Restricted Skills, calculate this bonus for all skills on your character sheet, even those for which you have spent no skill points (i.e. Rank 0) as you may be required to use them untrained. For Trade Skills, you will need to calculate this total twice: Once for the Application score and once for the Lore score (using the same Skill Rank in both cases).

Awareness

The Awareness Score determines your character's ability to passively notice important things in the world around them, and is dependent on your character's sensory skills. Awareness is a defense against Stealth attempts, the ability to notice changes in ambient noise and quiet sounds, and the ability to notice subtle movements and inconsistencies in the environment. The GM keeps a record of your character's awareness and, if your awareness is high enough, the GM will let you know when your character notices something without looking for it first. Awareness is based on a combination of Intelligence, Wisdom, Spot and Listen Skill training, along with other miscellaneous bonuses. To determine your character's Awareness Score, use the following formula:

Calculate your character's Awareness score and record it on your character sheet.

Patience

The Patience Score determines the number of times that your character can retry a specific skill or task before he gives up. Once your character has attempted a task a number of times equal to his patience score, he cannot retry again until significant time has passed or something about the situation has changed. Of course, patience only applies in situations where your character has the opportunity to retry the task. Some tasks cannot be retried, such as recalling knowledge (your character either knows it or doesn't), while others may have adverse effects to failure (such as setting off a trap your character is attempting to disarm).

Your character's Patience Score is dependent on Wisdom, and can be looked up in the table to the right. Feats and other abilities may add a miscellaneous bonus to this score. Record your character's Patience on your character sheet.

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